Confidential health screening is being provided to construction workers at selected new railway project sites (West Island Line, South Island Line (East), Express Rail Link, Kwun Tong Line Extension, Shatin to Central Link) under the MTR Corporation’s Worker Health and Well-being Month which was launched in May. The programme is aimed at promoting the health of construction workers as well as raising their awareness of the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle.
The MTR Corporation puts the health and safety of construction workers as a priority in building the 5 new railway projects. All major contracts employ a full time site nurse and have site clinics to monitor the health of their workforce. This year, the MTR Corporation decided to take worker well-being a step further by launching a new initiative to provide out-reach health screening. “Worker Health and Well-being Month” kicked off at the West Island Line site office in Kennedy Town where an audiologist and contractors’ worksite nurses assisted occupational health nurses to test workers for cholesterol and blood sugar levels, body mass index, blood pressure, eyesight and hearing. Afterwards, each worker was given a summary health report. In addition, a 30-minute health education talk was held to introduce workers to the three top so-called “silent killers” in Hong Kong – diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The programme will reach out to 29 sites in May with the use of an MTR vehicle that has been specially modified to serve as a mobile clinic. The MTR Corporation is also partnering with the Department of Real Estate and Construction of the University of Hong Kong to conduct surveys of workers’ current health status at each worksite health screening. The data to be collected will provide an up-to-date insight into Hong Kong’s construction workers’ health conditions, which will be extremely useful information to the entire industry.
“Our “Worker Health and Well-being Month” will raise health awareness throughout the industry and this will also help us to maintain a healthy workforce for sustainable railway development as our five new railway projects enter the peak construction period later this year,” said Mr T C Chew, Projects Director of the MTR Corporation.
As part of MTR’s commitment to maintain the health of workers, nurses are stationed on all sites to monitor workers’ physical conditions as well as chronic conditions that affect job performance. Rest areas are also provided at all work sites, and when the weather is hot during summer, workers must take a mandatory 15-minute break after working continuously for 90 minutes to prevent them from getting heat stress.